


the words on your arm (are the words to my heart)

by danyard



Series: the words that link our souls [1]
Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F, Soulmate AU, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-07
Updated: 2019-12-07
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:55:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21699613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/danyard/pseuds/danyard
Summary: Blake's not sure if she really has a soulmate, even with the words that exist on her arm. The universe finds a way to make her see that she does
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long
Series: the words that link our souls [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1566088
Comments: 8
Kudos: 240





	the words on your arm (are the words to my heart)

**Author's Note:**

> So I literally spent a good chunk of the day earlier writing the latest chapter of my Neighbors AU and then this idea just jumped into my head and had to be written. As the title indicates this universe is one where your soulmate's first words to you are written somewhere on your body. I'm a huge sucker for soulmate AUs, and I've actually got an idea for a longer one-shot lined up for later, so I hope you all enjoy!

The thing about knowing your soulmate’s first words to you in advance is that they’re often very hard to understand without context.

Sure some might be easy enough. You might be lucky enough to have a name included (though it might not necessarily be the name of your would-be soulmate) or a clear identifier to make the foresight easier; maybe a landmark, or a restaurant, or just an oddly specific phrase that could only pop up in one highly specific instance.

At the other end of the spectrum you have those poor souls with the most generic possible words, something like “hey” or “excuse me” or (if you’re really unlucky) some sort of profanity that you’ll have to hope is located somewhere that can easily be covered up. Your best bet at that point is to respond to any potential soulmate with the strangest possible combination of words you can come up with at that precise moment in time. If it works, then boom, you’ve found your soulmate. If it doesn’t, well then you better hope that you didn’t say anything too mindless or offensive; at the very least, you’ve probably given that person a decent story to tell their friends about the stranger they ran into in the mall that one time.

Blake’s words fall into a strange middle ground between these two extremes.

On the one hand, she knows that she’s extremely fortunate to not have a one word soulmate mark. She actually just dodged the bullet on that one: while she does have a full sentence written haphazardly across her left arm, the first word in said sentence is just a basic “hello”; technically it’s two sentences, but Blake thinks that the universe was being especially kind by lumping it all together into one soulmark. If anything else, Blake’s glad that her soulmate has the decency to start their future conversation with a full sentence to make finding them easier.

But while her soulmate mark may be thankfully more than one word, it’s not exactly the most specific one to begin with. The sentence as a whole reads _Hello! I believe you two may know each other?_ , and Blake’s not really sure where to begin with that. From what it sounds like, she’s going to meet her soulmate while being reintroduced to someone she already knows, which okay that’s plausible enough she guesses. The problem is that while it clearly gives her an idea of the type of scenario she’ll meet her soulmate in, that’s all she’s got to work with for now. Based on the context Blake has a suspicion that she’s going to have to wait for her soulmate to come to her, and not the other way around.

So she waits. She grows up and spends her lonely days hoping for someone who will understand her, who will love her unconditionally even as she doubts sometimes that she’s someone who deserves that love in the first place.

For a while she disregards the concept as a whole. Adam isn’t her soulmate, doesn’t share the series of words that are supposed to intertwine the two for the rest of their lives, yet Blake is still taken with him. Maybe it’s the air of mystery and excitement that surrounds him, maybe it’s the passion he feels for their kind, or maybe it’s the fact that he doesn’t care about the fact that their words don’t match; she thinks it’s the last one that really appeals to her, especially during a period of time where she’s especially sure that she’ll actually never meet her soulmate.

So she tries with Adam. It’s nice, at least for a while, and during the beginning Blake is able enough to ignore some of the flaws in him that only seem to increase by the day. But it’s not enough. She wants to agree with Adam’s rhetoric, wants to be able to say that the concepts of soulmarks are overwrought and superfluous like he does on a daily basis, but she can’t. Although the desire has diminished since she was a child Blake still yearns for a soulmate that she knows she may never meet. But she’s got the words on her arm, doesn’t she? So she’ll have to meet them at some point, right?

These conundrums rattle throughout Blake’s head all the time, and as terrible as it sounds she’s almost relieved to have an excuse to leave Adam and that part of her life behind. She’s not really sure if she’s ready to meet her soulmate yet, or how she really feels about that sort of divine predetermined matchmaking at all, but she knows that her future doesn’t lay with Adam. Riding that train away from him and heading off to Beacon is only a temporary solution, but Blake is hopeful that the universe will figure out the rest.

The universe, as it turns out, is more than happy to step up when it is needed.

Her first strange encounter is in the courtyard area, watching a girl who appears to be too young to attend Beacon (and is wearing a huge, bright red cloak) argue with someone who, based on the obvious genetic factors, appears to be a Schnee. Blake could really care less about getting involved, even less so considering the fact that explosives were somehow integrated into the ensuing mess, but the opportunity to insult a Schnee is too tempting for her to ignore. Of course she moves on quickly enough after her little fun, not sticking around long enough for the caped stranger to bother her any more than is needed, and Blake thinks nothing of the event immediately after.

As it turns out, however, this is not her last encounter with said stranger. Blake’s trying to enjoy the quiet and actually get some reading done for once in this noisome campus when she sees the girl coming towards her. Alongside her is a stunning blonde who seems to be around Blake’s age. As much as she’d like to get to know her, she really doesn’t want to deal with people right now, so she looks back down towards her book and hopes that her clear disinterest will be enough to stop any conversation in advance.

“Hello! I believe you two may know each other?”

A jolt of electricity rushes from her arm throughout the entirety of her nervous system, and Blake is impressed that her self-restraint allows her to slowly put down the book instead of freaking out too much about what she just heard. She had heard the voice of the first stranger earlier so she knows it’s not her, which must mean that it’s the blonde who spoke the words on her arm. This is her one chance to figure out what to say to her soulmate (provided it is in fact her soulmate, though considering the specificity of her sentence it’s a pretty safe guess) and it needs to be good; after all, whatever she says to her has already been written on that girl’s arm for her entire life.

Naturally, Blake is too intimidated to actually speak directly to her maybe-soulmate, and she turns to the first stranger instead. “Aren’t you that girl that exploded?”

The girl, who in casual clothes looks even younger than she had seemed earlier in that cloak of hers, is still as skittish as ever. “Uh, yeah! My name’s Ruby! But you can just call me Crater…” She pauses at this point, clearly realizing how awkward this sounds and adds, “Actually, you can just call me Ruby.”

This is it. Blake can now ask the other girl what her name is and they can put any initial tension behind them. All she has to do is ask. Just do it. Seriously just ask. Right now.

All of these thoughts ricochet around in the part of her brain that she thinks is smarter than the rest, but she’s still too nervous to actually do anything. Everything that is happening right now is happening way faster than she had been anticipating, and she’s not sure if she can do this right now. She’ll just return back to her books, that’s it. If she keeps reading then maybe they’ll go away, and she can figure out how best to approach this after a good night’s sleep.

Blake looks at Ruby, deliberately avoiding the stranger to her right, and gives her a simple “Okay” before reading again.

She thinks that her plan was a success after there’s a thankful moment of silence, but that silence is shattered soon after by the resumption of whispers between the two still in front of her. Maybe she’s not as lucky as she thinks.

“So…what’s your name?”

The blonde once again is the one asking questions, and Blake doesn’t even think when she replies with a simple, “Blake”.

That’s when it hits her: she’s just spoken to her soulmate. More importantly, her soulmate’s mark is Blake’s name, which really doesn’t mean anything too noteworthy but is something that seems especially romantic to her at the same time.

Based on how wide the girl’s eyes grow Blake thinks that she’s come to the same conclusion. She looks down at her right arm with a sense of wonder plain on her face, then smiles directly at Blake. “Well Blake, I’m Yang, Ruby’s older sister! I like your bow!”

 _Yang_. Well, she’s not exactly what Blake was expecting for a soulmate, but Blake can tell already that she’s in for one heck of a life with her.


End file.
